Meanwhile, outside of Vale, Tukson and Team CFVY were still in their stolen ship and riding towards their location, which was now below them. As they started to look for a safe place to land, Tukson stayed silent while he thought to himself about life matters and about Blake.
He honestly didn't know that Winter was with Ruby for starters. He thought she would be getting ready and trying to accompany him asap like old times. But the sad truth had to hit him on the head once again. The fact that this wasn't the old days. It was the present now. And things can certainly change in a span of four years. Yes, he was a little upset about the Schnee not accompanying him for the ride, but the last thing he ever wanted to do was force someone into something.
Sadly, he did force Blake into their relationship 'when' they were dating. He just confessed his feelings to her and her answer couldn't be no. He actually thought they had something at first. But as time passed and he slowly fell back into reality, it was nothing more then a act to her. A little play for them to escape their past. The fact made his teeth grind together in anger and a growl escape from his lips softly.
He wanted to let out his true emotions, but before he could, he felt the hand of Coco on his shoulder, who blurted out from right behind him while pointing below, "I think that place is safe enough."
"Alright," He replied. "I'll land there." Soon, the man tried his hardest to land the bullhead carefully on the ground, to which he actually did to his surprise. And with them now on the ground, the group exit the ship to find Mountain Glenn.
The area around them was completely empty. There was nothing but destroyed buildings, broken glass, and old or new ash that blended with the burnt concrete. The sight alone made them all look around in shock. But it mainly affected Velvet since she whispered out loud to herself with fear in her eyes and voice, "Oh my... Why did this happen?"
"You know the story, Velvet. You guys thought it would be a smart idea to add on to a kingdom close to Grimm grounds. This was the result..."
"She knows, genius," Coco replied back with venom in her tone of voice. "It's just. Too much to take in for her."
"It's too much for all of us," Yatsuhashi agreed as Fox just stood next to him and nodded to agree as well. The comments Tukson was given only made the male faunus sigh before turning to them and stating the obvious strictly,
"I know. But remember why we're here, okay? To fix things. To help the Atlas soldiers with this little infestation and take down Mercury and Emerald's leader so we can know what they're up too..."
"But... I don't see any soldiers anywhere," The female faunus stated, causing her teammates and the older one of them all to look around more closely at their surroundings this time. She was indeed right. There were no Atlas soldiers at the scene at all. To life forms of any sort. Just damage. The view made the man in front of her raise a brow before turning back to them for the girl's next reply on the matter. "Did the soldiers just went up and retreated?"
"Or are they hiding," the armor teen added quietly.
"Or maybe they're dead," The leader of the team questioned more then commented, making her teammates look in fright for a second at the thought. "What?... Sorry. Not helping anything."
"I don't know," Tukson answered. "But all I know is that things just got a little more interesting... I'm going to need you guys to listen to what I say. Just listen. Whether you want to follow or not is up to you. But keep your ears opened, okay?"
"Well, I can unless I do them like this," Velvet responded before she demonstrated that she could flop her ears down to the man and her team, only for him to continue blankly to her and the other teens,
"Cute. Now you guys have to find out where everyone else are and try not to die from any Grimm. But in order for this to work, you have to split up. Fox and Yatsuhashi, you guys will try and take down any Grimm in sight. Coco and Velvet, you guys try to find the any men around here and report them back to this ship. I will be going with the boys if you guys don't mind. Can you try and defend yourselves without me?"
"You're talking to the leader of this group," Coco told the man cockily. "I think we got this."
"Fine then. Don't get lost or killed out there... Come on, guys." With that, the group went their separate ways as the men walked away from the girls to get their job done without hesitation. Tukson thought the girls would really have no problem with what they were assigned and the mission at hand. But he was able to see the brown haired teen to sigh in a tired manner before she started to walk slowly with her partner to look around the place.
As the two teens walked down their way quietly, Velvet soon broke the silence with a simple question, "Want to talk?"
"Heh. About what?"
"I don't know. We can just ask each other things or make comments about life. Anything to not make it feel like I'm boring you or being rude or-."
"Velvet. Trust me," The leader of Team CFVY interrupted the faunus then took a hold of her hand gently to throw a soft smile. "You do anything but bore me in any way."
"Okay then... Are you okay? Not still mad or worried about Mr. Tukson or anything?"
"I think I'm fine, don't worry. He'll be fine too..."
"If you say so... Say, Coco?"
"Hmm?"
"How long has it been since we, ya know."
"About a year now, I think. Why do you ask?"
"No reason... You think we'll stay like this for longer or no?"
"Of course I do, chocolate bunny. Now you got me a little worried. What's up?"
"... I was just asking because... Well. I'm kind of scared of the future. Like, what if things end up like Mountain Glenn? Or we become separated in anyway- Or you get hurt- Or lost- Or-."
Before the faunus girl could finish what she was saying, she was stopped by a warm embrace from her partner at the moment. The embrace was nice and sweet. She soon understood the message behind it and gave back the embrace tightly, only for the other teen to tighten it to her surprise. The two stayed like that for a while as they let the silence around them slowly come back to comfort them as well. But this was broken when the human girl blurted out with a small chuckle, "Now what makes you think such a thing? You know we'll get through all of this. And you definitely know I'm not going anywhere... You're not hopping out of my life either. Trust that."
"Yeah," The younger teen agreed with a blush as she broke the hug to look through shades at brown eyes. "I shouldn't have let such a thing get the best of me. Thanks, Coco."
"No problem, sexy," With that over with, the leader kissed her teammate on the cheek before they continued to walk around the area once again in search for any citizens.
As they walked around in pursuit for anybody, the two girls soon laid their eyes on a sight that made a shiver be sent up their spine. The sight of blood. Human blood. The two held their breath as they saw the substance lead in a line to something. But they didn't know what. For all they know, it could be a body decapitated or a just a dead person all together. They really didn't want to see what it was after that, but they had no choice. It was their job to find Atlas soldiers. And for all they know it could probably be one.
So Coco walked down the path made for her slowly but surely while holding her partner's hand to calm her down. It took a while, but the trail of blood stopped in an irrupt manner for the teens to find something they knew was there but didn't want to be real.
A dead body of a atlas soldier, accompanied by a few more of them in what looked like a line. This made the faunus girl cover her mouth in horror as her leader said to herself and her, "Oh man... You don't think the Grimm did this, did you?"
"Maybe..."
"It couldn't be... The wounds are more detailed and not as gruesome like a Grimm attack... Someone else did this..."
"But who?"
"I. Don't know..."
"And you never will," A voice said from behind them out of nowhere, only for the owner of it to shock Velvet from behind, making her scream out in pain before passing out on Coco's back. The action caught her off guard but didn't let her get hit by the person since she jumped away to hold her teammate in her her arms and stare at the attacker closely.
The person looked like a male figure for the most part. 'He' had on a mask that resembled almost that of a Grimm mask, but instead the colors were switched, making the mask completely red and the lines accompanying it white. 'He' also wore a long black trench coat with a white dress shirt underneath it, black jeans that faded to red at the bottom, and brown dress shoes. All together, the men looked pretty shady but not as much. 'He' could probably be working for the White Fang for all the brown haired teen knew. But either way, it didn't stop her from trying to take this man down for what he's done.
"Who are you," She asked in anger. "Did you cause this?"
"... Maybe... Maybe not. All I know is that you don't belong here."
"Neither do you. Why are you here?!"
"No reason. Just trying to help the cause if you know what I mean. So can do me a favor and go away. Or I'll have to take down you and kill you're little girlfriend behind ya."
"Try me."
"Fine then..." Suddenly, like a flash of shadow, the man dashed at the teen quickly to knock her down and take Velvet instead while continuing, "Can't even protect the one you love, huh? How childish of you... Question is. Why isn't she with the White Fang? She knows you guys are nothing more then threats to this world."
"Let her go!"
"Or what? You're gonna tell on me to Mr. Tukson? I don't think so, darling. He can't protect you. No one can. Just like how you can't protect her... How. Saddening to look at... I would kill you like the others... But I won't... But I will ask if you send your little pest a message." The intruder threw the faunus girl at her leader, who was able to catch her safely without throwing her shift off of the man in front of her.
"Tell him that I'm still here. And so is Cinder and them. Tell him, I'm not dead just yet. And that I will come back. We will take back what's ours. And when we do, you will treat me the way I should've been treated back then. With respect." With those words, Coco suddenly felt herself get dizzy. As if she had lost her balance a little and started to fall down to the ground in a harsh manner. As she did, she watched one last time as the attacker laughed under his mask quietly at her defeat. She wanted to beat him to a bloody pulp for hurting Velvet, she really did... But either way, she had lost,
And this man had come out victorious this time...
"Coco! Velvet!"
"They seem to be unconcious but okay. We should take them back to camp."
"Okay, help me pick them up, Fox."
...
"No. It can't be...
Or is it?..."
